Phillies' top 2 free-agent additions heating up, end Dodgers series on high note

Taijuan Walker asked Rob Thomson several times why he was being pulled after five scoreless innings against the Dodgers Sunday.

Politely, of course.

"I asked him three times, just calmly, asked him three times," Walker said. "But the bullpen needed to get some work in and we won the game, that's all that matters."

Five days after shutting the Tigers out over seven innings, Walker authored an equally impressive start as the Phillies wrapped up their homestand with a productive offensive day in a 7-3 win.

Walker overcame a 26-pitch first inning and a laborious third to pitch five scoreless frames against the most patient lineup in baseball, the Dodgers.

He retired the final seven hitters he faced in relatively quick fashion, which made it a curious decision for Thomson to pull him at 83 pitches. The Phillies obviously did not want Walker facing Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Max Muncy for a third time, even with a three-run lead.

"I thought I was cruising," Walker said. "Everything was feeling good, my velo was really good. ... I did my job and handed it over to the bullpen to win the game and that's what we did."

In the dugout, Walker was visibly unhappy with the decision, shaking his head a few times. Kyle Schwarber walked over to converse with him at one point in the bottom of the fifth.

"It was the third time through, pitch count was in the 80s and we were at Freeman, so I wanted to put a lefty on him," Thomson said.

"He didn't want to come out. He's a competitor. He wasn't happy about coming out but that's what makes him great. I just said that's it, we're gonna go to the bullpen, and he just asked why. That's OK. It's all good."

Gregory Soto, Seranthony Dominguez and Jose Alvarado allowed lone runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings but the Phillies kept tacking on and claimed another series in front of a crowd of 44,287.

The Phils went 5-1 on their homestand. They're 32-33 as they hit the road for four in Arizona and three in Oakland.

"Some of us noticed maybe last month, we feel like when we score, they score, and answering back and forth wasn't on our side," Trea Turner said after a three-hit day. "Today, it was. We did a good job of getting guys out there and battling at-bats. Good team win."

The Dodgers entered with the lowest chase rate in MLB. Walker has found his most success this season when enticing the other team to expand the strike zone. Earlier this week against Detroit, he threw 42 splitters, 28 of which were out of the zone. The Tigers swung at more than half of them.

The Dodgers, with Mookie Betts, Freeman, Smith, Muncy and J.D. Martinez, make you work. They don't expand the zone much. Yet Walker began his afternoon by striking out Betts and Freeman swinging at nasty splitters that tumbled out of the zone.

"The one with Mookie, the check swing, I know the splitter's working well when I can get a guy like him who doesn't chase a lot," Walker said. "I kind of just stuck with that. I threw a lot of splitters today but it was working for us."

Three of Walker's five innings were 1-2-3. He has a 1.93 ERA over his last five starts and the Phillies have won six of his last eight.

Facing a Dodgers opener for the second time in three days, the Phils scored in the first inning on three straight singles by Turner, Nick Castellanos and Bryce Harper.

They plated two more with two outs in the third inning on a clutch two-run single by Bryson Stott, who has hit .345 with two outs and .248 with two strikes to lead the Phillies. He has six more two-strike hits than anyone in the majors this season. He's made big strides from Year 1 to Year 2 and is batting .292 overall in 2023.

"Ever since the second half last year, he goes through these streaks where he just wears people out," Thomson said of Stott. "He keeps fouling balls off, having good at-bats, seeing a lot of pitches, knows the strike zone."

Turner sure seems to be heating up. He hit a liner up the middle for a single in his first at-bat and doubled his next time up to score the Phillies' first two runs. He later hit a sharp single to left and scored again on Castellanos' two-run shot. Turner's rate of hard-hit balls has increased drastically each month this season, and his swing-and-miss rate has decreased each month.

"I feel good," Turner said. "When I do something wrong, I kind of know immediately and can fix it quickly. I'm hitting the ball hard and finding some holes.

"I've said it for a while, when mechanics are good, you can let the ball travel a bit, you can make better decisions, hit the ball harder and use the whole field. Just a lot of positives when your swing is right. I found that little hiccup in there, fixed that, and since then it's been really good."

Castellanos' home run was his eighth of the season, the same number he had through August 2 last year.

Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs also executed his second successful safety squeeze over the last month for another run.

Alec Bohm returned from the injured list and looked rusty, going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Kody Clemens got another nod at first base and continues to do something well in nearly every start. He robbed Muncy of extra bases with a diving stop in the sixth inning that would have otherwise brought the tying run to the plate. In the bottom of the seventh, he singled home Stott with two outs.

Now the Phillies are off to Arizona, where they've lost 12 of their last 15 games to Diamondbacks teams that were far inferior to this 2023 version. Arizona leads the NL West at 40-25, has won five in a row and 11 of 15.

The Phils are 19-11 at home but 13-22 on the road, second-worst in the National League to the Rockies. The upcoming seven-game trip is their longest the rest of the season.

"We've been playing well for a bit now," Thomson said. "Now we've got to go play a really good team and win on the road, that's our next goal."